Senator banned after wearing burqa in far-right protest in middle of parliament

A senator who is campaigning for a national burqa ban has been barred from Parliament for the rest of the year for wearing the Muslim garment in the chamber.

Pauline Hanson, the 71-year-old leader of the anti-Muslim, anti-immigration One Nation party, was accused of performing a disrespectful stunt on Monday.

She waltzed into the Senate shrouded in a head-to-ankle garment to protest against fellow senators’ refusal to consider her Bill that would ban the burqa and other full-face coverings in public places.

Senators suspended her for the rest of the day on Monday.

In the absence of an apology, they passed a censure motion on Tuesday that carried one of the harshest penalties against a senator in recent decades, as she was barred from seven consecutive Senate sitting days.

She later took off the black garment, claiming she wanted it banned for ‘national security’.

The stunt has cost her a few months sitting in parliament. When Parliament resumes next February, she will still be suspended.

‘They didn’t want to ban the burqa, yet they denied me the right to wear it on the floor of Parliament,’ Hanson told reporters after.

‘There is no dress code on the floor of Parliament, yet I’m not allowed to wear it. So to me, it’s been hypocritical.’

The government leader in the Senate, Malaysian-born Penny Wong, who is not Muslim, moved the censure motion on Tuesday.

Wong said by wearing the burka, Ms Hanson had ‘mocked and vilified an entire faith’, adding: ‘Senator Hanson’s hateful and shallow pageantry tears at our social fabric and I believe it makes Australia weaker, and it also has cruel consequences for many of our most vulnerable, including in our school yards.’

Pakistan-born Mehreen Faruqi said she and Afghanistan-born Fatima Payman were the only Muslims in the Senate. But when Hanson first wore the burka in 2017, there was none.

Why is Australia debating banning the burqa?

It’s not the first time Hanson has floated a bill wanting to ban the burqa. Hanson previously wore a burqa on the Senate floor in 2017 in a bid to ban the garment, but wasn’t punished at the time.

She’s long campaigned to outlaw full face coverings in public, including the burqa. In 2016, she cited fear that her country was ‘being swamped by Muslims’ as a reason for the ban.

Hanson also says it’s a national security and terror risk, making it hard to identify people if they’re wearing garments like a burqa.

She’s also said it oppresses Muslim women, claiming the garment is forced upon them by men.

For reference, around 1,000,000 Australians identify as Muslim, compared to a majority of Christians in the country.

Have any countries banned the burqa?

Several nations have banned the burqa.

Algeria, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Chad, China, Denmark, France, Gabon, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, and Latvia all have legislation against the garment.

Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Tajikistan, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Turkey and Uzbekistan have all also issued bans of some sort.

In most of these cases, the burqa has been banned only in public buildings or schools.

What is the difference between a burqa and a niqab?

The burqa is a full-body garment that covers the head and most of the face and goes right down to the feet, but in some places, wearers use mesh in the eye gap for more coverage.

The main difference between a burka and a niqab is that the niqab does not cover the whole body. It’s a veil that covers the face and head and usually goes down to just past the shoulders.

This is often worn with a loose black garment called an abaya that covers the rest of the body.

A hijab is a scarf that covers the head and neck but leaves the face open.

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